How many Browns players have gone on to become Hall of Fame head coaches?
Most people would say one.
That would be Bill Cowher, the fiery linebacker/special teamer for the Kardiac Kids who became a HOF head coach for the enemy, the arch-rival Pittsburgh Steelers.
A fewer number of people would say two, also pointing much further back in history to Don Shula. a safety on those first Browns teams in the NFL who guided the Baltimore Colts and Miami Dolphins.
Are those the only two? No, there is one more, and only the most ardent of Browns followers may know of him. He preceded Shula by just a few years, playing in the club’s final years in the All-America Fooball Conference before going to the NFL. He isn’t a Pro Football Hall of Famer like Shula and Cowher, but rather a College Football Hall of Famer. But, like Shula, he is a native Northeast Ohioan who also attended college in the state.
Do you know him?
It’s none other than Ara Parseghian, a two-way back who became the head coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish after doing stints at first Miami of Ohio, where he played collegiately, and then Northwestern. A product of Akron South High School, he was inducted posthumously into the Akron Public Schools Athletics Hall of Fame last Monday evening.
The three men are similar in a lot of different ways.
First of all, they grew up not really that far from one another, Parseghian, as mentioned, in Akron, Shula in Grand River, near Painesville, playing at Harvey High School and then John Carroll University in Cleveland, and Cowher in the Greater Pittsburgh area. If you take those three areas and connect them, it makes for a somewhat equidistant triangle.
They played just a short time with the Browns, Parseghian for only two seasons, 1948 and ‘49, before having his career ended by a hip injury, Shula for two years as well, 1951 and ‘52, before going to the Colts as part of a big trade, and Cowher for but three seasons (1980-82).
They got their first head-coaching job at a young age, Parseghian at age 28 at Miami of Ohio, Shula at 33 with the Colts and Cowher at 34 in Pittsburgh.
And on those jobs, they all succeeded Hall of Fame head coaches, Parseghian with Woody Hayes at Miami, Shula with former Browns assistant coach Weeb Ewbank at Baltimore and Cowher with former Browns messenger guard Chuck Noll in Pittsburgh.
Steve King
